Kathmandu, March 28

Advocates Hemmani Subedi and Narayan Kharel today filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court, demanding nullification of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari’s swearing-in by former chief justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli.

They filed the petition  a day after a single bench of Justice Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada  quashed SC chief registrar’s decision to refuse to register the  case against the swearing- in of the president by former chief justice.

The petitioners have said that as per a letter written by the Judicial Council on March 14, Parajuli reached his retirement age on August 5 last year and therefore, his resignation letter tendered on March 15 and its acceptance was unconstitutional.

The petitioners have sought nullification of President Bhandari’s swearing-in by Parajuli and the resignation tendered by Parajuli on March 15.

The petitioners have argued that Parajuli had  reached his retirement age on August 5 last year, but he  tendered his resignation on March 15  with effect from the same day which was in violation of the constitution. They have said that Parajuli conspired to extend his tenure from August 5, 2017 to March 15, 2018.

“Parajuli’s tenure cannot extend just because the president took the oath of office and secrecy from him,” the petitioners have argued. They said that senior-most Justice Deepak Raj Joshee had assumed the duty of acting chief justice before Parajuli tendered his resignation and therefore it should be considered valid that he reached his retirement on August 5.

The petitioner said that as per Section  31 (1) of the Judicial Council Act, 2017, the JC should issue a notice to a judge  60 days before he/she reaches his/her retirement age but in this case, it had failed to issue a notice to Parajuli in advance. They also stated that Parajuli worked after his retirement age due to mistakes of the Judicial Council.

“Nobody paid attention to the fact that the president was being administered the oath of office and secrecy by a person who had been relieved of his duty,” the petitioners have said in their petition.

They have also sought an order of mandamus to prevent the president from doing anything as the Head of State till she takes the oath of office and secrecy on the basis of constitutional provisions.  They have also sought an interim order against the defendants.

The petitioners have named the Office of the President, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Parliament Secretariat and former CJ Parajuli, among others, as defendants.